AAPI Workers and Unions

Posted
on January 22, 2011, 11:23 am

Source: CEPR.

Hye Jin Rho, Nicole Woo, and I have updated our paper on the economic benefits of unionization for Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) workers. AAPI workers are, with Latinos, the fastest growing part of the unionized workforce. About one of every twenty union workers (and about the same share of the overall labor force) is Asian American or Pacific Islander.

Using the most recent data available, we find that AAPI workers earn almost 15 percent more per hour than their non-union counterparts, even after controlling for worker characteristics such as education, age, gender, and state of residence. Unionized AAPI workers are also much more likely to have employer-provided health insurance and an employer-sponsored retirement plan.

Meanwhile, Rho, Woo, and I are working with a team from the Labor Center at UCLA to prepare a large report, for release this summer, on AAPI workers.